accepttodaynavyflightschool. she becamethenavy's firstfemale helicopter pilot and between 1975 and 1978 she was a plaintiff in a lawsuit that successfully challenged the restriction on women flying and serving at least temporarily aboard noncombat ships. she's remained politically active on behalf of women in the military thought her life -- throughout her life. next to her is colonel martha mcsally. she was one of the first seven women in the air force selected for combat aircraft cockpit when that restriction fell. as an a-10 thunderbolt pilot, she was the first american woman to fly into combat, and she completed multiple deployments associated with operations southern watch, enduring freedom and iraqi freedom. she was the first woman in u.s. history to command a combat aviation unit, and she did so during active combat. in recognition of her leadership and her performance, she received a bronze star and multiple air medals. she's continued to have an illustrious military and now postmilitary career. next to her is karen davis, retired left tent from the canadian forces. i'm

for former new york city mayor who died friday at 88. then, a program with formeru.s.navysniperwho was killed saturday in texas. followed by the prime minister's discussing the year -- the future of europe. >> on tuesday congressional budget office director rid of these is the disease 2013 budget and economic look. live starting at 2:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span2. also at 2:00 p.m., a bipartisan group of house members unveiled and trafficking legislation. you can watch that live on our companion network, c-span three. >> she said in her memoirs it was like a bright and beautiful dream. the most wonderful time of my life. the event that gives you some idea of how much she enjoyed being first lady in death she thought that her husband had finally achieve the recognition he deserved. >> historian on julia brand who married her brothers and west point roommate ulysses s. grant. first ladies, influence and damage, public and private lives, interests, and influence on the president's produced with the white house historical association preseason one begins present state of your 18th at

to jointhenavy? >>guest: i grew up thinking the marines were the against on the block. i always wanted to be one. so i went and tried to become ao marine.nd marine recruiter was out tothene lunch.p mall all o then, all of a sudden you have r the army recruiters, navyrecrui, recruiters are all trying to pick you off think it should come to them. i talked to each one of them. the navy recruiter sold me on beingon a navy s.e.a.l. be a >> host: at the moment that moment you knew you wanted to be a navy s.e.a.l. reign.ourse >> guest: everything he was tellingre me, which, of course, the recruiter built it up wherey it was a born type thing.eat he was telling me that the navy s.e.a.l.s do things that you never hear about. all of these great adventures and you'll be the mostra highly trained person out there and you will be able to have all ofhando these skills shooting and i, thought, all right, if they ares the best, i want to bet. the beo >> host: what was your trainingy right? yo >> guest: it felt like seven months long, the initialrt training, standing there with cked in your feet should

of islands that can be used to basically bought thechinesenavyfrommoving into the western pacific from the east china sea. they have been a source of daily confrontations on the sea and in the air between japan and china. you have to administration, one in china, one in japan. there is a hardening of positions on both sides, there is the usual diplomatic feeling, but i haven't talked to anyone who takes a particularly seriously. and we are one ep three away from potentially a major conflict between japan and china. i think there will be a war? now. on the other hand, the tension the domestic tensions in both countries would not be very easy to solve. either before conflict or after conflict, it is going to lose an enormous amount of credibility and influence in the region. both sides know that, and that is why they are now moving or word to getting much closer to war. the third thing is managing the broader relationship. so i will wrap up my comments here. despite the missteps of china over the last couple of months, it was revealed to be an iron fist in a velvet glove. the territorial

and breakfasts and lunches. there wasthenavybreakfastand the marine breakfast in the army lunch. they would get together not as republicans or democrats but as members of the army. veterans of the navy or the marines. one of the first with whom i had a special relationship, a first republicans i should say is somebody whose name i know you know well. he's one of my favorite americans and i can't tell you how much i treasure our friendship. that person is bob dole. there was a very poignant extraordinarily powerful moment just a couple of weeks ago. dan inouye eight president pro tempore of the senate was dying and lying in state in the senate rotunda. bob dole was wheeled and in his wheelchair to pay his last respects. he got out of his wheelchair and worked his way up to the casket and saluted with his good hand and then mention to those around him, i couldn't do that with dna sitting in a wheelchair. he and i were elected republican and democratic leaders in 1994. he had been leader. he said, when we were both elected, every farmer immediately went out and bought a new tractor. i don't kn

navyaswell. african americans served inthenavyduringthe civil war as well but once again, all of these are models. they don't represent any one particular african-american. inside the rotunda of the capitol there is a bust of dr. martin luther king jr.. but this is washington. we like full size statues. we like to put them in the middle of the street where we have to drive in circles around them. so we are not going to count this either. so, where in washington, d.c. is the only statue of a real african-american man on public land, and as a bonus, we're in washington is the only statue of a real african-american woman? the answer is they are both in the same place, lincoln park. in the middle of lincoln park is a statue called freedom memorial. it's a statue of president lincoln with a freed slave at his feet. that is a real person named arthur alexander. >> technology, you know. let's back up one. am i doing this or is it doing it itself? there we go. i want to read you a little bit about the freedom memorial. >> lincoln park located between 11th and 13th streets frequented o

position the bottom of a strategically important chain of islands that could block thechinesenavyfromthe east china sea. they have been a source of daily confrontations on the sea and now in the air between japan and china. you have two new administrations, one in china, one in japan. there is a hardening of positions on both sides. there's the usual diplomatic feelers, but i haven't talked to anyone who takes them marley seriously. and we are -- particularly seriously. and we are one ep3 incident away from potentially a major conflict. do i think it'd be a war? no. on the other hand, the domestic tensions in both countries, i think, mean this would not be very easy to solve. and whoever backs down either before conflict or after conflict is going to lose an enormous amount of credibility and influence in the region. both sides know that, and that's why they are now moving forward to getting much closer to war. the third thing is managing this broader china relationship, and here's where i'll link it back to what dani said and wrap up my comments. this is the long game. i think that

that could be used to, basically, block thechinesenavyfrommoving into the western pacific from the east china sea. they have been a source of daily confrontations on the sea and now in the air between japan and china. you have two new administrations, one in china, one in japan. there is a hardening of positions on both sides. there's the usual diplomatic feelers, but i haven't talked to anyone who takes them particularly seriously. and we are one ep3 incident away from potentially a major conflict between japan and china. now, do i think it would be a war? no. on the other hand, the tensions and the domestic tensions in both countries, i think, mean that this would not be very easy to solve. and whoever backs down either before conflict or after conflict is going to lose an enormous amount of credibility and influence in the region. both sides know that, and that's why they are now moving forward to getting much closer to war. the third thing is managing this broader, broader china relationship. and here's where i'll link it back to what dani said and wrap up my comments. this is the l

delivered distinguished service to his country inthenavyandthe democratic party and the people of this country as the 2004 presidential nominee for the democratic party. he is really a brilliant man. he was a debater at yale and won awards for his skilled oratory. before he graduated college, he was a local critic of the vietnam war. upon graduation, senator kerry volunteered to serve in the united states navy, and serve he did. later he said, "did i it because it was the right thing to do." senator kerry learned the value of service at home. his father was a foreign service officer. his mother a nurse during world war ii. he served two tours as a navy lieutenant in the jungles and rivers in vietnam. he was awarded the silver star for his gallantry, a bronze star for valor also, and three purple hearts. but even after his service in the war, his opposition continued. on april 22, 1971, senator kerry became the first vietnam veteran to testify before congress about the war, when he appeared before the senate foreign relations committee, which was chaired by the famous senator fu

and the reserve and i'm working forthenavy. goodafternoon, again. my question is do you think we're in risk of the same mistake we saw after vietnam in losing the expertise with the potential sequester and the possibility of losing special operations funding and the hard, expertise of our special operators? >> yeah. yeah we are. first, the difn budget is already coming down and needs to come down a lot. the -- defense budget has gotten huge and based upon the nation's finances we have to bring it down. i think the process is already underway. what people talk about defense they talk about we need to spend three or 4% of gdp for defense. i think that's a dumb approach. you need to spend as much foreign defense as you need to defend yourself. it was designed to be something so that sane people would never let it happen. [laughter] we confused the last part. because what happens is now if you sequester in 2013 and you don't make the decision until early spring, they only have the rest of the fiscal year to execute that. they have to take the cut about the last six or seven month of the years.

understood the similarity. unlike some of itscompetitivenavies, ininthebritishnavy, abritish naval officer had to start as a mid shipman, had to be able to do everything on the ship. literally had to be able to do every job with. had to do everything as they worked themselves up. they were not the aristocracy given commands to command ships of war. they were middle class people who became highly professional and competent. and can their crews were built on being highly professional and competent. as you know to a degree, crews benefited when they captured or destroyed an enemy ship, but if they captured it, it was prize money. and to a degree they became entrepreneurs. as one author said, they became entrepreneurs of battle. and what nelson understood was they were self-motivated and extraordinarily competent entities. and what he had to do was move them into position where those motivations and those talents could be put in position. he department have to fight the fight -- he didn't have to fight the fight for them, he had to build them into confident, competent, capable, self-co

to serve in the unitedstatesnavyduringthe vietnam war, john kerry was rewarded the silver star, a bronze star and three purposal hearts. upon returning home, he became a national leader in the fight for justice for veterans who served beside him in vietnam as well as veterans for wars before and since vietnam. he joined with others to found the vietnam veterans of america organization. he has worked hard here in the senate over all these years to secure veterans' benefits for an extension of the g.i. bill of rights for higher education, for appropriate treatment for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder. as we all know, senator kerry has played a leading role in shaping american foreign policy for many years in his position on the foreign relations committee and as chair of that distinguished committee. as chair of that, he was instrumental in securing passage of the new start treaty, an arms control accord with russia that is helping to reduce the danger of nuclear proliferation. he has served as a trusted special envoy to afghanistan, sudan and pakistan at crucial momen

naval career flying aircraft to theu.s.navy. about10 years ago, i transitioned over to academia. where i had an out standing opportunity to go to school where i specialize in middle eastern history. >> host: now an author, "the politics and security of the gulf" is the name of your book. that's a big topic, isn't it? >> guest: yes, it is. the united states has been involved in three hot wars. it is a big topic that needs to be discussed and investigated. which is part of the reason why we took on this topic. >> host: where you begin talking about united states involvement? >> guest: the u.s. involvement in the middle east goes further back. we are specifically looking at the persian gulf. it really is world war ii when we get involved in a big way. >> host: why is that? >> guest: surprisingly it does not have to do directly with a whale. it marked entry into the united states for two reasons. one is to provide a secure pathway for supplies to the soviet russian allies in their quest to defeat the germans. the persian gulf represented one pathway through a back channel of persia

forces initiative. a marine sergeant in the reserve and in working forthenavy. goodafternoon again. my question is, do you think were at risk of the same mistake we saw after vietnam and using the expertise with this potential sequester on the possibility of moving operations funding and the hard expertise of our special operators? >> yeah, we are. first, the defense budget is coming down and it needs to come down a lot. the defense budget has gotten huge and based upon the nations finances, we've got to bring it down, but the process is underway. people sometimes talk about what needs than 3% or 4% of gdp for defense. that's a approach. you need to spend as much on defense is a need to defend yourself, but no more and i think they're working on that. the sequester is completely different. sequestered was designed to be something so unpalatable that sane people would never let it happen. [laughter] we confuse the last part because what happens is that the sequester in 2013 and don't think the decision until early spring, they only have the rest of the fiscal year to execute that code w

and perspectives. we both lovethenavy. istill do to this day. but i had different feelings from john about the war. for both of us, vietnam was a deep point in our live, the way it was for many of our generation. here in the senate late one night, -- a trip of senator, congressman going somewhere in the world, we were going to kuwait after the first gulf war. john and i found others on a c130. neither could sleep. so we talked. we talked late in to the night about our lives and our war. shortly thereafter george mitchell and bob dole through us together on committee to investigate the fate of americans missing from the war which we fought. it was a tough time. and emotional issue where rambo was a box office smash and "newsweek" magazine covered provocative photographs which asked whether americans were still alive over there. in to that called rein, we were thrown together. some were suspicious of boast us -- both of us. together we found common ground. i will never forget standing with john in the which he spent a number of years of his life. alone in the cell listening to him talk about

pasta andthenavymakessiti and air force makes lasgna and air force makes mac and cheese. all three are pasta dishes but all are completely different. what we need to go forward, is see how the services implement the changes. would the reports come in on may 15th. what are the units they're asking exceptions for and are their parallels in different services and objections they're raised and different types of things. when we talk about execution that really needs to be where eyes are looking now, really moving away from last wednesday and going forward. >> absolutely. excellent point. michelle, a final comment. i'm sorry, doctor. >> i'm interested in hearing everyone else. i didn't prepare anything in final say. i'm honored and humbled to be sitting at this table and in this room. >> thank you. i would like to thank the panel very much for their participation and very insightful thoughts. it will be a challenging period ahead. certainly a lot to think about as we move forward and for repeal of the combat exclusion policy. thank you very much. [applause] >> we were expecting to bring

and perspectives. we both lovethenavy. istill do to this day. but i have different feelings from john about a war. for both of us, vietnam was a demarcation point in our lives the way it was for so many of our generation. but here in the senate late one night on a codel -- for people listening who don't know, codel is a trip of senators, congressmen going somewhere in the world -- we were going to kuwait after the first gulf war. and john and i found ourselves on a c-130 sitting opposite each other, neither of us could sle sleep, so we talked. we talked late into the night about our lives and our war. shortly thereafter, george mitchell and bob dole threw us together on a select committee to investigate the fate of americans missing from the war in which we'd fought. it was a tough time, an emotional issue in an era where rambo was a box office smash and "newsweek" magazine cover printed provocative photos which asked whether americans were still alive over there. into that cacaphonous caldron, john mccain and i were thrown together. some were suspicious of both of us. but together we found